NCIMB have produced a downloadable guide to the deposit of biological material for patent purposes.
The patenting system was developed to stimulate innovation – offering protection in exchange for the disclosure of inventions allows other inventors to understand the latest advances and build on them to develop new technologies. For many inventions, disclosure requires a written description and drawings. In the case of inventions that are, or require the use of biological material, disclosure includes the deposit of biological material in a recognised institution.
NCIMB is such an institution, and holds the status of International Depositary Authority under the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Biological Material for the Purposes of Patent Procedure (1977) and Implementing Regulations (1981).
This means that biological material deposited with NCIMB under the Treaty meets the deposit requirements of patent offices in all countries party to the Treaty. This process saves applicants time and money, because, instead of depositing the material in every state in which patent protection is sought, the applicant can deposit it only once, with one depositary authority.
However, depositing can still seem a little daunting if you are doing it for the first time, with a number of steps to be successfully completed before a deposit has officially been made. So NCIMB have produced a guide to the Deposit of Biological Material for Patent Purposes, that gives details of the types of biological material that we can accept, and the requirements for each type of material, as well as mapping out the the steps that are involved in the process and highlighting some tips for depositors to help make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible.
However, depositing can still seem a little daunting if you are doing it for the first time, with a number of steps to be successfully completed before a deposit has officially been made. So NCIMB have produced a guide to the Deposit of Biological Material for Patent Purposes, that gives details of the types of biological material that we can accept, and the requirements for each type of material, as well as mapping out the the steps that are involved in the process and highlighting some tips for depositors to help make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible.
You can download the guide by clicking on the image above or go to our patent service pages